Contributors

May 30, 2014

16-Year-Old Inventor Joey Hudy and the Maker Movement

In our new wearable-tech series, The Concepts, The Creators Project is investigating various innovators who are designing wearables that evolve art forms and practices to the next level. In our first The Concepts episode, we zoned in on SubPac, a device that lets users feel sound. Today, we’re sharing a documentary on a very precocious and very inspiring young creator.

Joey Hudy is a 16-year-old student and active member of the Maker community. Since middle school, his DIY engineering sensibilities have yielded awesome innovations, including a dog jacket that changes lights based on how active your dog is called Dawg, a marshmallow cannon and LED Arduino shields.

Hudy is gifted inventor and prodigious DIY engineer. He’s shared his work at multiple Maker Faires, will intern at Intel’s New Devices Group product development program this upcoming summer and even shot marshmallows across the White House with President Obama. Talk about aiming high.

Though a marshmallow cannon might seem like small potatoes compared to the hacker hardware exhibited beside him at Maker Faire, Hudy has set his eyes on larger creations. In our documentary, viewable below, he explained his goal to make his own prototype “smart” glasses that work by reading human thoughts, rather than using a camera to sense eye movements. These are smart glasses that can read your mind.

Asking himself what aspects of smart glasses he’d like as a consumer, Hudy has since conceptualized a nuanced design that includes prescription lenses, built-in headphones, a 3D camera and sensor that can read gesture control, plus EEG sensors that monitor brainwaves and respond accordingly.

Hudy illustrates that both the Maker frontier and the world of wearables are not reserved for seasoned and veteran engineers. Proving that the youthful mind lends itself to amazing innovation, his motto is “Don’t be bored, make something.” It’s the perfect philosophy for any emerging creator, of any age.

Shery Huss, vice president of Maker Media, echoed similar thoughts: “The whole Maker movement has a multi-generational spirit.” She describes wearables, in particular, as the “wild west,” meaning that a less rigid outlook on the limits of making is vital for the future of the domain, and imaginative thinkers like Hudy and others are going to be the ones to push this area into unbelievable new territories.

“The younger generation is the heart of the Maker movement,” said Huss. Whether it’s a marshmallow shooter or smart glasses that read minds, fresh thinkers like Hudy are the people who will bring technologies like wearables into the next generation.